Terrain data is typically measured and stored in raster format: uniform grids of height measurements, much like a digital image, but with height instead of brightness. When displaying terrain data, the terrain data is first converted to a triangular surface mesh. The surface mesh may be texture mapped to provide for a realistic rendering of the visualization of the terrain data. Generally, the triangular surface mesh is a set of 3D vertices connected to each other to form a mesh of seamless triangles. Surface meshes are used in computer graphics, mechanical engineering and other fields for both visualization and simulation. However, determining a triangular surface mesh from raster data may be computationally complex and/or require significant processing time.